Can you seperate DV A&V? w/ dvd2avi?

Hi Marley_,

So, just to confirm, you've got DV AVI files.

You can use VirtualDub with DV AVI and it will work with audio and video separately. I have to confess that I'm not too clear on what you want to do exactly, so I'm thinking that a video editing tool might be able to do what you want too.

Hi Marley_,

DVD2AVI is, as the name suggests, for taking DVDs (and (S)VCDs or other MPEGs) and converting to AVI. Quite what other functionality it has I'm not sure. It may have things in common with VirtualDub but I don't think they're the same.

tmh has already covered VirtualDubMod.

From what you describe, you need a half-decent NLE (non-linear editing) tool. Adobe Premiere will definitely do the job, but - because it's powerful, it's not the simplest thing to learn. You won't need TMPGEnc at all.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Capture via firewire from DV cam to PC hard drive. Premiere will do this, but I find WinDV (free) better as it splits the clips into separate files every time you started recording a new clip.

2. Load the DV AVI files into Premiere and arrange as you want them. You can also cut out unwanted audio, and overlay new audio in new tracks.

3. If it's Premiere 6.0 (which I use), you can create rolling titles, but you have to put blank lines at the beginning and end so that when it scrolls, it goes through the blank lines first, then the credits, then the blank lines at the end to clear the screen. For later versions of Premiere, you don't need to do the blank lines.

Be sure to have a black background if you want "to roll credits over taped scenes".

4. Here's how to do credits rolling over video:

a) Save the rolling title to a known location.
b) Place that file on the timeline in a track that's above the footage you want it to play over.
c) Click once on the titles in the timeline to select it.
d) In the "Effect Controls" palette, click on "Setup" for the "Transparency".
e) Because you (hopefully) have a black background in the titles, you'll need to use the alpha channel.
f) Play with the settings to get it as you want - there's a preview in the transparency settings.
g) When done, close the settings window.

5. When totally finished, render the project.

6. You want it on VHS and are gonna do this via your DV cam. So, export the project back to the cam from Premiere. File -> Export... I can't remember the exact wording, but it should be apparent. I know it's NOT "Export to tape" as this is for PC to VHS directly and you need to have the right outputs at the back.

7. Once on DV cam, hooking it up to your TV and then recording on the VCR probably won't work - unless you've done it before and know it does. You'll need to hook the DV cam direct to the VCR.

Good luck...

Originally Posted by Marley_

thank you for your help tmh & daamon, I will see what I can do.

...this project is due in only a few weeks and I have two major finals due in the same time frame.

No problem.

As well as learning all this stuff, you'll also learn that video projects will always need about 3x as much time as you initially think - until you get accustomed to their complexity that is. In short, plan well in advance...

Originally Posted by Marley_

is there something special I need to do to configure WinDv to do this or does it automatically do this regardless?

Using WinDV:

1. Download zip file. There's nothing to install, just read the "readme.txt" and put the "WinDV.exe" file where you want it.

2. Open WinDV. "Capturing from DV Device" tab -> Click "..." of "Capture file" field. Select capture location, and provide filename. Click OK (or whatever).

3. "Capturing from DV Device" tab -> "Config" button -> 2nd "Capturing from DV Device" tab:

a) Set to "Type-2 AVI"
b) Threshold: 1. Max AVI: 1,000,000 (Don't put commas in. One million frames is around 10 hours, stops WinDV chopping long clips short of their end). N-th frame: 1
c) Set date / time as you want.
d) Set "numbering digits" as you want. I use 2. This will give you "filename.XX.avi" where the XX are numbers starting "00" and increasing by 1. Using 3 would give XXX etc.

4. Click OK. Start DV cam rolling. As soon as picture appears, click "Capture".

5. All DV capture is "real time". So if your footage is 80 minutes, it'll take 80 minutes to capture. Leave DV capturing, go and have a beer / cup of tea and come back when it's done.

Originally Posted by Marley_

I found a guide on this website to capture DV video and convert to dvd (which I will ignore the latter of course). Is this suitable? Or should I be capturing a diff. way?

There's probably loads of guides, so it's tough to say whether it's suitable or not. Provide the link...

Hi Marley_,

Adjusting audio volume (and left-right balancing) is quite straightforward in Premiere 6.0 onwards. I use Premiere 6.0, and the following screen prints are taken from there. Later versions are probably similar...

I'm assuming you have put the video clip on to the "Timeline" - just drag from the "bin", and drop into a video track. The associated audio will display in an audio track.

1. Set the timespan of the timeline to 2 seconds or less. This will allow you to see the audio's waveform. Any more than 2 seconds and it's not displayed.

2. Click the audio "Collapse / Expand Track" button to display / hide the waveform. Viewing this will allow you to judge where to edit the audio better.



In the middle of the waveform, you'll see a horizontal red line (if the red button on the left of the timeline, in that audio track, is clicked - if not, click it). This is called the "rubber band" for the audio's volume. As it's in the centre, it's 100% (i.e. normal) volume. It can go down to 0% and up to 200%.

Adjusting the volume is done by clicking (once) on the red line to establish what's called a "handle". The handle can be dragged up or down to increase or decrease the volume's percentage.

To do fine adjustments, in increments / decrements of 1%, press and hold "Shift" then drag the handle. Dragging the handle to beyond the waveform will delete it. Handles can also be dragged left-right to adjust their position in the timeline.



In the image above, I've set a handle at 100% to establish an end point for the preceeding audio. The very next frame then has a handle at 0% and the volume will gradually increase (as per the gradually rising red line) back to 100%.

This will have the effect of suddenly stopping the original audio, then fading it up from silence to normal.

NOTE: By default, there are immovable handles at the beginning and end of the audio clip, so if you want the effect to start at a certain point, you must place a handle there or the effect will start from the beginning of the audio.

If you have two audio tracks overlapping, you can click on the "Cross Fade Tool" button (item 3 in the screen shot below). You then click on the first audio track (the cursor will change to the same as the button you've just clicked) and then click on the second audio track.

This will have the effect of fading out the audio track that's playing first, whilst at the same time fading in the subsequent audio track. See item 4 in the screen shot below - it's self-explanatory.



Play with it to figure out how to achieve what you want.

The same can be done with the left-right balance - just click the blue button in the relevant audio track and the same rules to handles on the balance "rubber band" apply.

Hope that helps...